Child Labor And The MarketWhy Did Parents Hate Their Kids So Much?

One of my biggest pet peeves is not when someone indulges in an emotional argument. But when someone indulges in a humorless emotional argument. If it’s going to be pithy or anecdotal, at least make it funny. I want to derive some utility from my time, as meager as it may be. I remember once I was in a debate with a friend of mine, online, about the merits of deregulation of businesses. I pointed out how businesses could focus more on innovation and capital accumulation if unfettered by the myriad state mandates they are molested by currently. The response I received was a picture, of a boy about 9 or 10 years old working in a textile factory, copy and pasted from the Wikipedia page for child labor, and one sentence — “Well, you must love this then!”… For the record: I know funny, and that’s not it. But it is a subject that we, as libertarians, will have to constantly (and, as Christians, should) address.

Life was Great Before the Greedy Capitalists Took Over

When I hear a child labor argument employed against capitalism, I often wonder: what do you think it was like before capitalism showed up? If you take any time reflecting on the progression of history, you’ll remember that the industrial economies of nations were preceded by feudalism. Feudalism was a system in which the nobility held lands from the Crown in exchange for military service, and vassals were in turn tenants of the nobles, while the peasants (villeins or serfs) were obliged to live on their lord’s land and give him homage, labor, and a share of the produce, notionally in exchange for military protection. Have you ever wondered why you don’t hear much about the education systems of peasant children in the feudal age? Answer: they had other things going on. The statist would have you believe they were too busy perfecting their skipping techniques or making daisy chains. That, however, is slightly inaccurate. The reality is: life for that boy, working in the textile factory, was vastly more brutal before capitalism showed up. The fact is, most children worked longer and harder hours under every system until capitalism. As hard as it is for us to imagine: that textile job would have been an improvement for the boy! Think about it; before industrial employment was available for that boy, he would most likely have been a field hand: outside 12-14 hours a day with a hoe busting big hunks of dirt into smaller hunks of dirt. Is that really better than working inside, for the same amount of hours a day, doing less strenuous work? The truth is, capitalism is the system that made it possible for children not to work.

Thank Goodness the Government Saved us from Child Labor

The next argument that you can expect to encounter will probably be along the lines of:“Okay, maybe it was worse before capitalism, but that didn’t stop the industrialists from extorting child labor as long as they could! They didn’t pass child labor laws for nothing!” If you aren’t aware yet, the state actually passes laws for nothing all the time. Child labor is a great example of exactly that. If you look, child participation in the labor force had been on the decline on its own. In fact by the time the state got around to addressing child labor (1938), child participation rates in the work force had been cut in half (1880-1930).

The conditions during the time period we’re discussing are also largely ignored. The choice wasn’t: should we, as parents, send little Billy to the textile factory, while we eat bonbons and listen to hired bands play live music? It was more like: should we send little Billy to the textile factory so we can all eat every day? In my opinion, it would be more cruel to disallow the option of child labor in those circumstances. As Robert Whaples points out:

“Most economic historians conclude that this legislation was not the primary reason for the reduction and virtual elimination of child labor… Instead they point out that industrialization and economic growth brought rising incomes, which allowed parents the luxury of keeping their children out of the work force.”

Children worked long, hard hours in factories just like they did on farms. The government did not abolish child labor until it was economically possible to do so, and after markets were abolishing it naturally. Children worked in factories around the turn of the 20th century for the same reason they worked on farms prior to that. It was the best option available to them, as there was not enough widespread accumulation of wealth that made it possible for them to be removed from the workforce.

Written by

Anarchist because I'm Christian. I have an awesome family, I love to spend time outdoors and read. I'm often involved in community charities. I have one-third of a B.S. in history and economics--never let school get in the way of your education.

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